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An accidental listing on Amazon Italy was posted (before being taken down) that showed the yet to be announced Huawei P Smart Z. The listing revealed the entire spec list, as well as the retail price of €279, which translates to $313.
This handset will feature a 6.59-inch FHD+ (2340×1080) display with 391ppi and a 19.5:9 aspect ratio. The phone will be fueled by Huawei’s own Kirin 710 chipset, and will ship with 4GB of RAM and 64GB expandable storage. Everything will be juiced up by a 4,000mAh battery.
As far as cameras are concerned, the P Smart Z will have two rear sensors, a 16MP (f/1.8) and a 2MP (f/2.4). For selfies, users will have a 16MP front-facing camera that will feature 2D Face Unlock. The phone will come with Android 9.0 Pie pre-installed and will have a rear-mounted capacitive fingerprint reader, as well as a 3.5mm headphone jack. The color options will be black, green, and blue that shows off a two-tone look reminiscent of the original Google Pixel.
The P Smart Z will be Huawei’s first smartphone with a pop-up selfie camera. A few other manufacturers have shipped devices already with this type of mechanism, such as the Vivo Nex S. Other companies have implemented this design in various ways, but the goal is, all the same, a bezeless display. Until cameras can work from behind the glass and remain unseen, the pop-up mechanism is the way manufacturers are going.
It’s an interesting strategy for Huawei to market the P Smart Z as a budget device. The listed price of €279 is well below the premium price tag of the P30 Pro. Recently, global smartphone shipments for Q1 were released. Both Apple and Samsung experienced losses, while Huawei jumped from 39.3 million phones sold in Q1 2018 to 59.1 in 2019.
It’s not known for sure, but much of Huawei’s growth could be credited to the budget-friendly devices it produces both under its name and sub-brands. While Samsung does market cheaper smartphones, its main devices are at the flagship level and flagship price. Apple, on the other hand, only sells flagship phones, which is likely why it experienced such a loss in the market. This information leads to believe that consumers are both upgrading phones less often and that many are making the switch to cheaper devices.
Manufacturers like OnePlus, for example, have been working hard at closing the gap between premium and budget-priced smartphones. Cheaper phones are offering more bang for the buck than higher-priced ones, and apparently, consumers are noticing.
With the upcoming release of the P Smart Z, Huawei is making a push for Samsung’s global sales crown. The Chinese electronics company has already surpassed Apple, and it doesn’t look like it has plans of stopping anytime soon.
That being said, the government is prohibiting the brand from selling in the United States due to previous privacy scandals. It’s clear that Huawei isn’t struggling from the geographical ban, but if they ever do enter the U.S. market, it’s sales would likely grow to overpass Samsung’s.
